Food Insecurity: A Trek Through Data
Introduction and Topic Overview
It’s tempting to begin this article with a gimmick. Something like, “Food, huh? We can all relate to that!” But the truth is that the way each of us relates to our food can look very different from the ways our fellow humans on this planet may relate to theirs. Yes, we eat for nourishment of our bodies, but for many other reasons as well: community, connection, entertainment, culture, health, or even simple survival. The decisions we make surrounding what to eat each day are simultaneously unique to us as individuals, and also deeply human and shared by all. At the same time, the factors that go into what options the world around us presents to us when it comes to making those decisions about our food vary wildly with the context an individual is situated in. This project is an attempt to understand more about how people around the world relate to food and, more specifically, to food in the context of other elements of their lives and situations. But before we dive straight into our data from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, we’d like to zoom as far out as we can and talk a little bit about population.
Below is a line chart showing the population of each continental region over the last 50 years:
The first thing that jumps out to most viewers here is the distance between Asia’s population numbers and growth rate and the rest of the world’s. In 1970, Asia had more than twice the population of the second most populous continent, Europe. 50 years later, and Europe has been bumped down to the third place with very little growth at all - about 250 million people less than the new second place continent, Africa, and a whopping three billion people less than Asia. This was our first clue that we’d need to narrow down our focus when looking at the global metrics in our analysis below. Many of the data elements you’re about to see are per capita (aka per person) evaluations, or in some cases percentages of the total population of a country that fit into the given category. Some metrics go even further than that, being calculated on rolling three year averages, so that freezing a specific moment in time becomes quite difficult. How would such rapid population growth affect these more staid data processes? Is it possible to compare a per person evaluation of GDP (gross domestic product) or other such metrics when the population scales of the two entities being compared are so vastly different? We were not ready to completely narrow our focus to one specific region just yet, but we now had (and hope you do too) a better grasp of the scale of these metrics and what they may mean.
As we take a look at the UN’s data on the Suite of Food Security Indicators, we invite you to think more about your own relationship with hunger, health, security, and community. When you look at those lines in the graph above, do you immediately search out a particular region? Do you see yourself or those around you represented in this data, or simply aggregated away into a tiny fraction? This article will delve into a global discussion of how we can understand food security in the 21st century, what the effects of insecurity may be, and why it matters. While we do indeed all eat to survive, our relationship with food can be complicated and influence by our upbringing, community, and culture. When we talk about the prevalence of malnutrition, do you have a different instinctive response than when when we discuss the prevalence of obesity? Is food insecurity something you have experienced in your life, or is it a theoretical issue that happens Elsewhere? How about political violence? We hope you will keep these questions in mind as you explore the visualizations in the article below.
A small note before we begin: as some of our visualizations are served up by an external source, you will need a working internet connection to view the next two plots.
A Closer Look at the Food Supply: Why Does This Matter?
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.
Food Insecurity & Gender: Zooming In to Africa & Europe
For the remainder of the article we are going to focus on two continents - Africa, and Europe. We made this decision for several reasons. Primarily, we wanted to have two continents to compare and contrast with one another to cut down on the cognitive load we would place on our viewers. As discussed in the introduction, the rapid population growth and scale difference between Asia and any other continental region would make comparison difficult. We chose Africa and Europe out of the remaining continents for three reasons.
- Africa is the most food insecure continent on the planet in terms of severity.*
- After Asia, Africa and Europe are the most populous countries with similar populations in 2000 yet different rates of growth leading to differing population levels today.
- Because of the ramifications of European colonization of Africa in the so-called Scramble for Africa from the mid 1800s to the early 20th century, African and European economies are linked together in specific and interesting ways.
We’ve looked closely at the relationship between region, GDP, and whether the average person in a country receives enough energy from their food to perform daily life. Now let’s narrow our focus and look at the percentage of individuals in a country who we know do not get enough to eat: that is, the percentage of adults who live in a household that the UN classifies as food severely food insecure. The following is a direct quotation from the description of this metric in the metadata section of our dataset:
*“The threshold to classify”severe” food insecurity corresponds to the severity associated with the item “having not eaten for an entire day” on the global FIES scale. In simpler terms, a household is classified as severely food insecure when at least one adult in the household has reported to have been exposed, at times during the year, to several of the most severe experiences described in the FIES questions, such as to have been forced to reduce the quantity of the food, to have skipped meals, having gone hungry, or having to go for a whole day without eating because of a lack of money or other resources. It is an indicator of lack of food access.” (Bolding unoriginal)
Let’s take a look at how severe food insecurity rates break down by country, when averaged over the last two decades and separated by gender:
As we can see from a glance, there is a massive difference in the prevalence of severe food insecurity between our two continents of interest, regardless of gender. Malawi and the Congo have the highest percentage of male adults living in severely food insecure households, with 17.3% and 16.8%, respectively; for female adults, we see the two highest rates in the Congo (17.1%) and Guinea (16.1%). This contrasts starkly with Europe, where we see the highest rates in Albania, with only 3.5% of male adults and 2.7% of female adults living in severe food insecurity, and Romania, with 1.6% of men and 1.3% of women living in households in the same category.
It is particularly remarkable that even for the most food insecure nations in each region, the difference between the food insecurity rate of men and women is quite small, within a percent. This was a surprise to us, and we wonder if it was a surprise to you as well. It appears that the prevalence of severe food insecurity in both regions is somewhat gender blind, affecting men and women at similar rates. Of course this does not take into account differences in population demographics; if a country’s population is more male than female, even a less than one percent difference in prevalence rates could mean thousands more men than women (or vice versa) living in such dire situations.
When discussing what dataset to use here, I confess that we as a group struggled a bit. There were conversations about using one level of severity over another, as well as whether or not to include children in this analysis. This is a heavy topic and not one taken lightly. Additionally it is rarely a good idea to compare one human’s suffering against another’s, or to say that the quantity of people suffering is the only metric that matters - that way lies madness. However, as a way to look at the state of the world, we stand by our decision to include troubling statistics like this one that highlight some of the inequities around us. We do not intend to minimize those individuals in Albania and Romania (or any country!) who make these impossible decisions about what or when or how much to eat, but merely to highlight the truly different scales that these issues exist on.
There is clearly a difference to the average person in these two regions in one’s ability to access sufficient foodstuffs. Next, we would like to take a look at two other metrics attempt to measure the impact that difference in access can have on the health of people in these regions.
Who Is Affected? Obesity and Malnutrition
Tracking Obesity and Malnutrition Throughout the 21st Century
Malnourishment and obesity represent two important and interconnected global health challenges. Malnourishment can be characterized as the inadequate intake of essential nutrients, whereas obesity is the excessive intake of nutrient-poor foods. Malnourishment affects millions worldwide, more often in low-income regions. Obesity affects millions across all ages, genders, and socioeconomic backgrounds. Addressing both health issues necessitates concerted efforts and global cooperation that prioritizes equality and sustainability.
From 2000 through 2016, Europe maintained a higher average obesity rate compared to Africa. Obesity continued to rise in both continents, although the growth was relatively small, reaching a maximum of 0.41% increase.
In 2016, both Europe and Africa recorded their highest average obesity rates of 22.74% and 11.78%, respectively. In 2000, both continents reported the lowest average obesity rates, at 16.83% in Europe and 6.78% in Africa. Notably, Europe’s lowest average obesity rate surpassed any recorded average obesity rate in Africa during this time period. These averages highlight a pronounced difference in obesity between Europe and Africa.
Between 2000 and 2016, Africa consistently exhibited a higher average malnourishment rate compared to Europe.
Africa’s average malnourishment rate peaked at 24.14% in 2000, while Europe reached its highest rate of 10.48% in 2004. Conversely, Africa achieved its lowest average malnourishment rate of 17.81% in 2011, whereas Europe hit its lowest average rate of 3.60% in 2016.
In Europe, the largest spike in malnourishment was from 2003 to 2004 at 2.86%. While we cannot be certain, this may be because of the outbreak of conflict occurring in Kosovo, and the ramifications of the Rose Revolution in Georgia. During the same time period, the average malnourishment rate actually decreased in Africa by 0.64%. Interestingly, Europe had a sharp decline in malnourishment from 2006 to 2010, totaling to 6.29%, perhaps suggesting a recovery from the earlier periods of conflict. Africa’s average malnourishment rate continually decreased from 2000 to 2011, amounting to 6.33%. These trends underscore a disparity in malnutrition prevalence between the two continents.
Visualizing Food Supply Disparity by Country
The overall average rate of malnourishment in Africa, when calculated over the 20-odd years since the turn of the century, stands at 20.29%, contrasting with Europe’s average rate of 2.88%. The overall average rate of obesity in Africa is 9.50%, while in Europe it is 19.51%. Based on these averages, it’s evident that obesity had a greater impact on Europe than Africa, while malnutrition had a more pronounced effect on Africa compared to Europe during this time period. These averages suggest an inverse relationship between the malnourishment rate and the obesity rate in these continents.
Furthermore, there were a handful of countries who impressively maintained a malnutrition rate and obesity rate of less than 10.0% These countries include Mali, Nigeria, Ghana, Mauritius, and Mauritania. Of these countries, the average obesity rates ranged from 6.01% to 9.57% and the average malnourishment rates ranged from 5.42% to 9.19%.